Wednesday, 12 October 2016

Russian Government Officials Told To Immediately Bring Back Children Studying Abroad

In
Europe, when it gets serious, you have to lie... at least if you are
an unelected bureaucrat like Jean-Claude Juncker. In Russia, however,
when it gets serious, attention immediately turns to the children.

Which
is why we read a report in Russian website Znak published Tuesday,
according to which Russian state officials and government workers
were told to bring back their children studying abroad immediately,
even if means cutting their education short and not waiting until the
end of the school year, and re-enroll them in Russian schools, with
some concern. The article adds that if the parents of these same
officials also live abroad "for some reason", and have not
lost their Russian citizenship, should also be returned to the
motherland. Znak cited five administration officials as the source of
the report.

The
"recommendation" applies to all: from the administration
staff, to regional administratiors, to lawmakers of all levels.
Employees of public corporations are also subject to the ordinance.
One of the sources said that anyone who fails to act, will find such
non-compliance to be a "complicating factor in the furtherance
of their public sector career." He added that he was aware of
several such cases in recent months.

It
appears that the underlying reason behind the command is that the
Russian government is concerned about the optics of having children
of the Russian political elite being educated abroad, while their
parents appear on television talking about patriotism and being
"surrounded by enemies."

While
we doubt the impacted children will be happy by this development,
some of the more patriotic locals, if unimpacted, are delighted. Such
as Vitaly Ivanov, a political scientist who believes that the measure
to return children of officials from studying abroad, is "long
overdue." According Ivanoc, the education of children of the
Russian elite abroad is subject to constant ridicule and derision
against the ruling regime. "People note the hypocrisy of having
a centralized state and cultivating patriotism and anti-Western
sentiment, while children of government workers study abroad. You can
not serve two gods, one must choose."

On
the other hand, political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky quoted by Znak,
believes that such decisions should be approached with more
pragmatism. Such a recommendation is more likely to lead to an
outflow of officials from the state, rather than allow the return of
the children studying at elite foreign universities. He also warned
of attempts to recreate an echo chamber such as that experienced
after the failed July coup attempt on Turkey's President Erdogan.

But
what he said next was more disturbing: "On the one hand, this is
all part of a package of measures to prepare the elites for some 'big
war' even if it is rather conditional, on the other hand - this is
another blow to the unity of President Putin with his own elite"
Belkovsky said. He adds that the Western sanctions launcedh in March
2014, had sought to drive a wedge between Putin and elites. In
response, the Kremlin began to act precisely according to the logic
of these sanctions. "But while a ban for having assets in the
West is one thing, and understanable, when it comes to a ban for
offshore health and education services, the blowback will be far
greater, as it represents a far more important element of the
establishment's life strategy."

Ultimately
the motivation behind Putin's decision is unclear: whether it is to
show Russia's high-ranking oligarchs who is boss, to boost a sense of
patriotism among the nation by sending a symbolic message that the
west is no longer a welcome destination for Russia's rich kids, or
just a preemptive move of repatriating of any individuals affiliated
with Russian politics for other unknown reasons; however it
underscores the severity of the ongoing diplomatic crisis and just
how significant the upcoming isolation between Russia and the West is
likely to become in the coming months - unless of course tensions
deescalate dramatically in the very near future - resulting in even
greater collapse in global commerce and a further slowdown to world
economic growth, which may ultimately lead to an armed conflict,
whether regional or global, as the only possible outcome.

Russia
Recommends Family Members to Return Home?

In
a rather odd report coming from Znak.com a Russian language news
source they have published an unofficial report that states: "Russian
officials, up to the highest level, that children studying abroad are
to return to the country, and to do so without finishing the courses
of study."

If the article is indeed authentic this may
suggest Russia's concern over the growing Syria tensions.

Russian
President Vladimir Putin has canceled a planned visit to France after
Paris shortened the program for the trip. The development comes amid
increased tensions between Russia and France over Moscow’s veto of
a French UN Security Council draft resolution on Syria.

Putin
was expected to arrive in Paris next week, but the visit has now been
postponed, the Kremlin confirmed.

“There
were some events scheduled, including the opening of a Russian
cultural and religious center, [and] exhibitions. Unfortunately,
those events were struck off the program, so the president decided to
cancel his visit to France for now,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry
Peskov said.

Commenting
on the cancelation of the visit, French President Francois Hollande
said on Tuesday he was prepared to meet Putin “at any moment” to
discuss Syria.

"I
consider it is necessary to have dialogue with Russia, but it must be
firm and frank otherwise it has no place and it is a charade. I'm
ready to meet President Putin if we can make progress on peace,"
the French leader said during a session of the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe (PACE).

Earlier,
French diplomatic sources told Reuters that France wanted to
downgrade the planned visit and cancel all events except a working
meeting with President Hollande on Syria and that Russia chose to
postpone the visit instead.

This
comes a day after Hollande said he was reluctant to meet Putin after
Russia blocked a French-sponsored resolution at the UN Security
Council, which sought to impose a no-fly zone over Aleppo, Syria.

Moscow
said that the resolution would protect terrorist group Al-Nusra
Front, which controls a greater portion of eastern Aleppo, under a
pretext of humanitarian relief. An alternative proposal by Russia,
which would seek a deal with the group to grant them safe passage out
of the city and spare its civilian population, was rejected by other
members of the UNSC.

French
officials accused Russia and the Assad regime of committing war
crimes in Syria and threatened to ask the International Criminal
Court to probe the allegations. It was not immediately clear how
Paris wanted to deliver on the threat, considering that the ICC has
no jurisdiction over Syria.

The
rising tension over Syria, as evidenced by increasingly loud rhetoric
against Russia coming from the West, indicates the unresolved dispute
over the war-ravaged country’s future between Moscow and Western
powers, according to John Laughland, director of studies at the
Institute of Democracy and Cooperation in Paris.

“Now
that Russia has become a party to the war in Syria since last year…
this has aggravated the situation with the West, because not only has
Russia successfully prevented Assad from falling – a year ago there
was a chance that he would be overthrown – but Russia has also
increased her own position on the international stage. And that, of
course, is something that the Western powers do not like,” he told
RT.

“In
some ways we should see the Syrian conflict as a conflict between the
West and Russia. Four years ago I’ve said that the real target in
Syria was not Assad but Putin. And I think we can see this angle
coming back again,” he added.

The
cancelation of Putin’s visit may have been the reason why France
rather than another nation submitted the draft resolution, which
Russia was expected to veto even before it was discussed at the
Security Council, independent journalist Robert Harneis told RT.

“Why
should it be France? It could have been Britain. After all, Britain
and France compete with each other to run after the Americans all the
time. So one wonders whether it was deliberate to make it impossible
for this meeting to take place,” he said.

He
believes that France acted on a cue from Washington in this
situation, but Putin’s not coming to Paris may actually benefit
President Hollande during the upcoming election in France. After all,
Putin might have touched upon France’s own misdeeds, like the
overstepping of a UN mandate to enforce a no-fly zone in Libya, which
was used to destroy Muammar Gaddafi’s army, which was done by
primarily France and Britain, Harneis said.

“It
would have been very embarrassing for Hollande if Putin had come,
because Putin is known for defending himself. If people attack him,
he gives a straight answer. I don’t think that in the run-up to the
election Holland would want an acrimonious meeting in Paris,” he
explained

A
German undercover journalist enrolled as an intern at the RT Deutsch
studio to spy on “Putin’s propaganda broadcaster,” but things
didn’t exactly go as planned. After just two days, the man began to
question the mainstream media bias – and his own worldview.

German
youth magazine Neon planted journalist Martin
Schlak at the RT Deutsch office in Berlin. His mission was to find
out how "Russia's
truth" –
to use his own term – is being made.

“I’m
a spy,” Schlak
admits.

He
writes he was eager to learn if RT’s daily work would live up
to the terms used by German mainstream media to describe it, such
as “Putin’s
propaganda broadcaster” and “the
Kremlin’s weapon of hybrid warfare.”

To
do that, Schlak enrolled as an intern and became "Putin's
man" for
several weeks.

“What
did I actually imagine would be there? A fax in the middle of the
newsroom, sending orders from the Kremlin every minute?” Schlak
asks himself ironically.

Reality
turned out to be a bit more mundane. The self-styled spy mentions
friendly co-workers, coffee machines and an intelligent chief editor
speaking perfect German.

'Proportional
Response': Did the White House Just Threaten to Hack Russia?

Four
days after publicly accusing the Russian government of hacking into
the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the Obama Administration has
announced plans for what it terms a “proportional” response.

On
Friday, the US Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the
Director of National Intelligence released a statement formally
accusing Moscow of attempting to influence the US election by hacking
into servers belonging to the DNC.

It followed a series of informal
accusations against Russia for the hacks, also made without evidence.

On Tuesday, the White House
offered some idea of how it plans to respond.

"There are a range
of responses that are available to the president and he will consider
a response that is proportional," White House Press Secretary
Josh Earnest told reporters.

"The president has talked before
about the significant capabilities that the US government has to both
defend our systems in the United States but also carry out offensive
operations in other countries."

He added that whatever action the US decides to take
will not be announced to the public in advance. Speaking to Radio
Sputnik, Ohio State University Professor Emeritus of International
Law John Quigley pointed out that the basis for the decision is
largely ungrounded.

"Well, it seems a bit ambiguous. The
statement said that it is consistent with methods used which is a
formulation that falls short of saying that they definitely know what
is going on," Quigley said.

"Speculation a week or so ago
was that the United States would not come out with these accusations
because it raises the question of what it could do next," he dded.

"The likelihood is that it will not do much. I think that
probably the president wanted to make this information public but
that he doesn’t really have in mind any specific countermeasure."

The Russian government has
dismissed the allegations against it as part of a "hysterical
campaign."

Speaking to Russia’s Channel One broadcaster,
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated, 'When I discussed the
issue with US Secretary of State [John] Kerry last time, I told him
that we have had some consultations. After all, we also do not want
our nationals to engage in cybercrime. This can be turned against
Russia."

"We do not want to cause any damage to other
countries as well," Lavrov detailed, adding, "It is funny,
that there is quite a hysterical campaign underway in the context of
the elections debates [suggesting] that we have hacked the sites of
the Democratic Party and Pentagon."

Lavrov said that Kerry
expressed interest in bilateral consultations over the issue, but
apparently the White House derailed the overture.